Report: Israeli killed in NZ quake was suspected spy

New Zealand and Israel are buzzing over a news report that an Israeli killed in the February earthquake in Christchurch was a suspected Mossad agent working with others to steal sensitive intelligence information from the country's national police computers.

The paper writes that Prime Minister John Key, in Los Angeles today, refused to confirm details of the alleged spy effort, "saying it is not in the national interest for him to talk about it."

Here's a summary:

The police national computer has been under scrutiny in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake in February because of fears Israeli agents loaded software into the system that would allow backdoor access to highly sensitive intelligence files.

The Security Intelligence Service ordered the checks as part of an urgent investigation of what one SIS officer described as the suspicious activities of several groups of Israelis during and immediately after the earthquake.

Three Israelis were among the 181 people who died when the earthquake destroyed most of Christchurch's central business district on February 22. One was found to be carrying at least five passports.

An unaccredited Israeli search and rescue squad was later confronted by armed New Zealand officers and removed from the sealed-off "red zone" of the central city.

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